Former two-time WWE United States Champion Samoa Joe was last in action on the February 10th episode of Monday Night RAW and it was on the January 27th episode of the program that Joe suffered a concussion during a RAW Tag Team Title match. Joe will be out of action once again as Pro Wrestling Sheet is reporting that he suffered an injury while shooting a commercial.
It is noted in the report that the injury occurred last week when Joe hit his head during a table break as a stunt was being filmed. Sources told the site that Joe could be out of action for a considerable amount of time.
Joe has been on RAW and/or SmackDown since 2017 and has captured the United States title and challenged for the WWE and Universal Championships on multiple occasions. He was in the midst of a feud with Seth Rollins, Murphy and AOP (Akam & Rezar) as Joe aligned himself with Kevin Owens and The Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik ).
From September of 2019 to January of 2020, Samoa Joe was not wrestling due to injury and for several weeks, he did commentary for the RAW brand and called pay-per-view events as well.
whoopsā¦I was at that Maniaā¦like I said, snake bitten. Shame, too because a big Joe program at Mania is something the guy deserves. Was hopeful he would get the Tag Title shot w/ KO but now Iām sure weāll just get a KO v Seth match (sigh)
There are 100 variables I donāt know about the situation, but here what I do know. I work with athletes. I help create promotional material with athletes. If an athlete was ever injured while on my watch, regardless of how game he was to participate, Iād be lucky to have a job the next day.
Iām not advocating for somebody to fired (again, I donāt know all of the details), but it sounds like Joe took a ārealā table bump for a commercial, and that would be an fān stupid decision by Joe and likely some others on the WWE payroll.
If this was indeed during a commercial or something of that nature - this also brings up questions that should be aimed at the āindependent contractorā status. These guys are doing TV ads, with apparent stunts involved - yet cannot seem to get any sort of union protection - and itās for whatever reason WWE talent doesnāt qualify for SAG.
WWE as a company needs to decide if they are Disney, or a wrestling promotion. You canāt be both for whenever it suits you.
Maybe Iām jumping to conclusions. Maybe Iām not. But if this is a workplace injury while doing work on a promotional piece / TV ad - then the company is responsible and needs to pay up.